Newspaper Article - Murder in Shoalwater: Mary and Tom Franklin

 

A murder in Shoalwater with a canvas as the murder weapon. Mary and Tom Franklin.

 

By Isabelle Coto.

The Franklin family was just an ordinary couple. Mary is the wife who is a ‘housewife’ that paints, cooks and takes care of their home. Tom is the home provider; he has a job and pays for all the expenses.

So, what went wrong? Who would want to kill Tom Franklin. Investigators are searching the crime scene. It is known that Tom Franklin was hit on the top of his head with a painted canvas that had enough force to kill him. The painting was then hung up on top of the fireplace on the wall. Mary was having dinner with their neighbors at the time of his death.

Did someone get jealous of Tom Franklin’s life or was someone hired to kill him? Tom had no known suspects of people who would want to kill him. Whoever killed Tom Franklin did it on purpose.

The house was as normal as it commonly was. Mary was at Police officer Matt Smith’s house for dinner as Tom came home late that evening. Matt Smith is Tom and Mary’s neighbour.

Why would the murderer use a painting canvas to kill someone and how can you lift a human sized canvas with a body on top of it and hang it on a wall? Who could have done this?

Mary paints in this previously used greenhouse room as it has the perfect sunlight that hits the canvases that she paints on. It is thought that the murderer didn’t have a weapon to attack Tom Franklin with so they went into Mary’s painting room to find a weapon, but when they couldn’t, they decided to use a canvas that Mary has been painting on. 

The painting the murderer used to kill Tom had a woman and a man. Mary decided to paint a photo of herself next to her beloved husband. 

The greenhouse was surrounded by nature and beautiful sightings of animals and flowers. Mary loves her home in Shoalwater but is now afraid to go back to her house. 

Mary confirms that once the painting of her and her husband was complete, she was going to hang it up above the fireplace in the living room. Could Mary be the murderer? And police officer Matt Smith being her sidekick in helping her get away with such a murder? 

The murder happened between 6:00pm-7:05pm as Tom Franklin finished work at 6:00pm and Mary went back to her home to find Tom dead at 7:03pm. Mary says she doesn’t know who was out to kill Tom as he was friends with everybody. 

Police officer Matt Smith denies that he knew about the murder. Mary Franklin backs him up by saying they were together for around an hour and a bit. Detectives are suspicious of the two as they claimed they had dinner at Matts house but when detectives went over they found no dirty dishes and the oven and microwave wasn’t warm. 

The Franklin’s house is a lovely place. There’s one neighbour who spoke up anonymously about how they could sometimes hear fighting between Mary and Tom but didn’t think to call in about it as couples can have arguments. Officer Matt says he’s never heard them arguing. 

When Mary finished her dinner with Officer Matt Smith, she went home. It was dark out as the sun had set so Police officer Matt walked her over. Suddenly he heard Mary’s shrieks and then heard a banging on his front door with loud cry’s. Matt walked Mary back over and called the police, soon enough they arrived, and all witnessed were interviewed. 

Mary states whoever killed her beloved husband is pure evil as now she is traumatised by seeing her dead husbands head through her painting hung up on the wall.  

Further details will be figured out and clues should be found. Detectives haven’t caught a lead on who the murderer could be. 

If you know something or heard something, speak up. True crime that has gone unsolved is everywhere.

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Photo by: Markus Winkler.